This invention is concerned with a flying gaff for gaffing large fish, such as sharks. Flying gaffs presently commercially available suffer from several disadvantages: the line-mounting member is attached to the shaft and the aperture is at its upper extremity for attaching the line thereto and further the member is rigidly mounted onto the shaft. When a handle is attached to the lower extremity of the shaft, the gaff is ready for insertion into the body of the shark. After insertion of the gaff into the shark's body, the handle is detached from the shaft and the rope or chain affixed to the top of the member is relied upon to maintain contact between the fishing boat and the shark's body. However, the shark will readily roll and thrash about after being gaffed and the strain on the hook is such that it is invariably readily dislodged from the shark's body due to such rolling and turning action or due to strain which results in bending or distorting of the hook thereby resulting in a failure to maintain the proper angle of contact of the hook relative to the shark's body.
In the present invention, the aperture of the wing member is located at its lower extremity (that is, the greatest distance from the hook point) and furthermore, the wing member is mounted on the shaft such that it is freely rotatable around the shaft. This causes the strain (after the fish is gaffed) to be centered in the area of greatest structural strength of the hook, i.e. in the area of the semicircular curvature between the barb or hook point and shaft and also permits the proper angle or contact of the hook in the fish's body despite its rolling and thrashing actions. As the distance between the aperture (for affixing the retrieving line) of the wing member and the hook point or barb increases, the gaffing action becomes more efficient (thus the wing member should be as long as is conveniently possible).